Dear Father
by Spectre.of.Apples
Summary: On the front line in World War I...this is what Naruto would write to his father...if he was alive. AU, one shot. Flames make me warm. Rated M for character death and mentions of Trench Foot.


**Ahem.**

**I have uploaded another story! :O Wow!**

**Hehe, anyway, this is what I imagine World War I would be like. This is a SOSE assignment, which is also unBeta'd(like all my stories :P), but I didn't use Naruto's name at the end, or 'Sayuri'. I don't know where I got that name from...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto._ We've been through this!**

**Warnings: Mentions of death, decaying, dead bodies, holy crosses, flies, rats, lice, enemies...character death.**

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><p>Father,<p>

How are you? How is everything at home?

I know mother worries about me, and I know Sayuri is too young to understand her big brother is away fighting to keep her free and alive.

Father, I'm going to tell you something I have never told mother.

You won't believe how awful the conditions here are. It's always raining and muddy; quite different from back home. There are millions of rats and lice in every stitch of our clothing; no matter how many times we wash them in hot water. We get fed pretty well, considering there's a war going on around us and there might be rum sometimes in the mornings; not much, but enough to give us a good 'get go' as mother would call it. We have our morning stand to an hour before dawn; we were roused by the company orderly officer and sergaent and ordered to climb up on the firestep (shall I draw a diagram for you, father?) to guard against a dawn raid by the enemy; which never came. We'd have our breakfast; it is very peaceful then! The enemy would put up their rifles and so would we; breakfast was always a time of peace. Until one of the commanding officers would put their foot down and order us or them to fire!

After breakfast, we'd do daily chores; refilling sandbags, preparing the latrines, fixing the trenches, repairing duckboards on the bottom of the trench and draining the trenches; which was painstaking, because it had to be done everyday! The rain would never let up; not if one of your comrades was injured, dying or you had to resupply your fellow troops. Thankfully, equipment would be supplied for the draining.

Did I mention they make us clean our rifles every morning so it is in top shape? They inspect it, too. Next came our inspection.

Life is very boring, father. We cannot move much during the day; it's too easily seen! Most of us are look outs or snipers; but we rotate constantly. Once we finish our assigned tasks, we are free to read and write and catch up on sleep, althought only for a few minutes before we are assigned another task. Like preparing meals; which consist of mostly stew or beef and biscuits or spam. Some men whittle objects; ornamental objects or useful items from used bullets and shell casings. Should I make something for mother? Maybe a little flower? Do you think she'd like that?

One thing that is always constant; other than the rats, of course, is Trench Foot! Oh, it's terrible! You always have mud in your boots; no matter how hard you tried not to. You can never get away from it; all the water pooling around you, soaking your socks and swimming in your boots. Thankfully, we have at least three pairs of socks; and we are told to change them at least two times a day, after drying them, we also have to coat our feet in a grease made from whale-oil! It isn't very nice, but you get used to it.

Kiba was killed today, Father. We were sitting, talking to each other when the alarm went up; another man had died further up the line from a sneaky enemy, who had disappeared again and was sneaking up the line of barbed wire; our barrier between us and No Man's Land. He must have been a desperate soldier, Father, for a trip across No Man's Land, through the onslaught of random bombing and straight to the enemy defence was suicide; like he had walked into a field of poison gas without a gas mask.

We were checking we have a full clip of munition; just when the soldier peeped over the lip of our shelter and fired once, the round slicing straight through Kiba's forehead. All I heard was a bang, splatter and a heavy thud. I looked up and killed him before he could kill me too. He rolled over onto his back, his own rifle falling beside me. I dropped on my knees beside Kiba but I know it's hopeless, he would've died as soon as the bullet entered his brain.

It's like a disease, Father; all the deaths. You can't get away from it, no matter how hard you try.

I can't bury Kiba; there is no time to. There is no time to bury anyone. They all lay in rows, crosses placed carefully on their chests. The stench was horrific, the first few days. And the flies! Everywhere! They swarm over the dead, over the living and over everything else. The soldier operating the machine gun has difficulty shooting; as the urge to swat the irritating pests is overwhelming.

Not all the dead soldier's are from bullets or bombs or gas, either. Some are even from hunger. Sometimes; when the enemy blasts away the soldiers carrying our food supply, we must live on rations. Some soldiers are forgotten or are left out and so they die too, placed up on that flat ground with the other dead, decaying in that way that makes you retch, avoiding looking at the gruesome scene when it's our time to fetch the food.

What is almost as bad is the unexpected heavy shell-fire from the enemy. Sometimes there is absolute dead silence, the rats have disappeared when suddenly our trench is peppered with machine rounds, grenades exploding dangerously close. It shakes me occasionally, but mostly it relieves the tension building among us all. Often, we will return the favour.

Enough with the worst of battle, hm? My rotation is approaching slowly. Hopefully I shall be off the front line soon and home later on.

Tell Mother I am fine, alive and looking forward to her delicious cooking again. Tell Sayuri I have a gift for her.

All the best,

Love,

Naruto.

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><p><strong>Ta daa! I don't expect this to be top notch, I mean, this is only the rough draft! XD<strong>

**Please, review if you don't feel too lazy...god knows I hate reviewing when I don't want to...hehe**

**I know, I'm sorry; I killed Kiba! I was gonna put Shikamaru...but I didn't...**

**REVIEW!**

**EDIT: Guys, I'm sorry if you've read this and realized I referred to Kiba as James...eheh...sorry...I fixed it!**


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